Smurfs: The Lost Village trailer1:30

Rainn Wilson and his Smurfs: The Lost Village character Gargamel. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

FROM Chekhov to the Smurfs ... it might not be an obvious career trajectory, but Hank Azaria and Rainn Wilson have nailed it.

The two funny men, who went to acting school together, appeared opposite each other in the same college production of Uncle Vanya more than 30 years ago.

“If you were one of the lucky, couple of hundred people who saw that production, you saw two future Gargamels,” says Wilson, who plays the outlandish Smurfs villain in the just-released reboot, Smurfs: The Lost Village.

Azaria appeared as the same character in the previous two Sony versions, released in 2011 and 2013.

“Hank was very funny in the live action version,’’ says Wilson, “but this is kind of rethinking of the Smurfs, getting back to its animated roots.

“And it’s a different challenge as an actor, creating it vocally through the microphone.”

The role switch is kind of ironic, since Azaria has been voicing Simpsons characters, including Moe Szyslak and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, since 1989.

Gargamel (Wilson) and Azreal in a scene from the film. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

But Wilson, best known as Dwight Schrute in the US version of The Office, does have prior form as an animated villain – he played the evil alien overlord Gallaxhar in Monsters vs Aliens.

“There is nothing more fun than playing ridiculous comedic villains,” he says.

“Gargamel takes himself very seriously. He is meglomanical and completely narcissistic. He thinks he’s the most brilliant person on planet earth, but he is really pretty idiotic.

“I had an absolute blast.”

While the monkish animated villain inhabits a parallel cultural universe to Chekhov’s pompous, academic has-been, Wilson says that’s all part of the job.

“When I was playing the Professor in Uncle Vanya in 1985, I never thought I would even be a working actor, let alone get a chance to play so many different roles.”

Variety is what keeps his work interesting,

“I still mix it up,” says Wilson.

Wilson as Dwight Schrute in a scene from The Office. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

That includes starring in a theatrical production of Will Eno’s beautifully-crafted monologue Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) at LA’s Geffen Playhouse last year.

“It’s a really intense, one-person play.”

Wilson has just finished filming the creature feature Meg in New Zealand, with Jason Statham and Ruby Rose.

Based on Steve Alten’s 1997 science fiction novel, it tells the story of a former Naval captain and expert diver who is recruited for a deep-sea mission to rescue Chinese scientists under attack from a 20-plus metre white shark, Carcharodon megalodon.

Wilson plays billionaire businessman Jack Morris.

“My character provides the comedic relief but in some ways he’s the villain, too. It’s a really interesting role with lots of different colours and a super fun ensemble to play with.”

Prior to that, Wilson worked with Patricia Arquette on the independent US comedy Permanent.

“It’s a $US1 million film – which was probably Meg’s hair and make-up budget.”

When he’s not trading bad wigs with Arquette or avoiding monstrous sea creatures in The Land of the Long White Cloud, Wilson splits his time between LA and Oregon, where his wife, writer Holiday Reinhorn, was born.

“I am not a rugged outdoorsman by any stretch of the imagination — I think I have done like two overnight camping trips in my life,” says Wilson.

“But I definitely love being out in nature. It feeds my soul. And Oregon has giant mountains, huge forests, beautiful lakes – what’s not to like?”

Wilson, Reinhorn, and son Walter, 12, share their home outside the town of Sisters (population 2000) with an assortment of strange creatures including two Vietnamese potbelly pigs, a zonkey (half zebra, half donkey) named Eric, another donkey named Chilly Beans, two horses, a couple of guinea pigs and a pair of pitbulls.